Readers: Less Faith In Database Analytics?

A comparison of two Business Intelligence Pipeline polls indicates that readers have less confidence in database makers' ability to deliver built-in analytics than they did a year and a half ago.

A comparison of two Business Intelligence Pipeline polls indicates that readers have less confidence in database makers' ability to deliver built-in analytics than they did a year and a half ago.Almost 40 percent of readers said in Oct. 2004 that they believed analytics built into products from the major database makers would probably someday be sufficient to handle their BI needs on their own. The poll seemed to affirm the anxieties of stand-alone BI analytics firms, namely, that their tools might someday be considered superfluous.

But a new poll on Business Intelligence Pipeline shows that BI vendors might have less to fear from users than they previously thought. The poll, which is still open -- vote here if you'd like to weigh in -- so far shows only 23 percent of readers saying they expect databases to someday be able to handle all their analytical needs.

A full 36 percent of readers in the current poll say outright that they'll always use stand-alone BI tools. That figure is up slightly from 33 percent who said the same a year and a half ago.

ITís tried for years to simplify data analytics and business intelligence efforts. Have visual analysis tools and Hadoop and NoSQL databases helped? Respondents to our 2014 InformationWeek Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Information Management Survey have a mixed outlook.